23. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. MARY WITHIN CRIPPLEGATE
The hospital of St. Mary within Cripplegate owed
its origin to the compassion felt by William Elsing,
mercer of London, for the blind beggars who wandered about the City without refuge of any sort.
On some land belonging to him in the parishes
of St. Alphage and St. Mary (fn. 1) he established, in
1331, a hospital that was intended to accommodate 100 persons of both sexes, but appears to
have started with thirty-two inmates. By the
founder's wish blind or paralysed priests were to
be received in preference to any other people. (fn. 2)
The government of the hospital and the performance of the religious duties for which the
house was in part founded were entrusted to five
secular priests, of whom one was to be the
custos or warden. As the dean and chapter of
St. Paul's had appropriated to the uses of the
hospital the church of St. Mary Aldermanbury, (fn. 3)
of which they were patrons, they were to have
the nomination of the warden and two of the
priests, the appointment of the other two resting
with Elsing and his assigns. The warden was
also to swear fealty to the dean and chapter and
pay the pension of a mark due of old from the
church of St. Mary Aldermanbury, and a second
pension of half a mark in sign of the subjection
of the hospital. Elsing laid down certain rules
to be observed by the priests: they were not to
hold any other preferment; the warden was to
render an account of the revenues before two
of his fellows every year; a complete suit of
the same colour for all (including tunic, upper
tunic, mantle, and hood), the price of which in
the case of the warden was not to exceed 40s.,
and in that of the others 30s., was to be given
to each every year, and a sum of money for other
necessaries; there were also detailed regulations
as to religious services in the chapel, and as to
the visits to be paid to the sick in the hospital.
The original endowment consisted of tenements
in the parishes of St. Lawrence Jewry, St. Mary
Aldermanbury, St. Alphage, (fn. 4) and St. Martin
Ironmonger Lane, to which were soon added
some in the parish of Allhallows Honey Lane. (fn. 5)
Elsing, finding that the resources of the hospital
were still too slender for its work—for shortly
after the foundation there were sixty beds there
—petitioned the king in council to be allowed
to bestow upon it land or rent to the value of
£40, and was permitted to purchase land worth
£10. (fn. 6)
Within a few years of this foundation Elsing
became doubtful as to the wisdom of his choice
of secular canons. He may already have had
proof that the hospital would suffer, as he said,
through the seculars being permitted to wander
about the City, and through their care for temporal things; and in February, 1337–8, he petitioned the bishop of London that regulars might
be put in their place. (fn. 7) The bishop, after consultation with the dean and chapter of St. Paul's,
effected the change in 1340, (fn. 8) ordering that
henceforth there should be there at least five
Austin Canons, and that the number should be
increased as the resources of the house grew.
They were to be governed by a prior, who was
elected by them with the assent of the dean and
chapter of St. Paul's, and presented by the latter
to the bishop for his confirmation. To the dean
and chapter belonged the custody of the priory
during a vacancy. (fn. 9)
The house received support from several other
London citizens: in 1336 William de Gayton
left a tenement in the parish of St. Botolph
without Aldersgate (fn. 10) to provide a chantry;
Robert Elsing, the son of the founder, endowed
a chantry of three priests with £12 a year; (fn. 11)
in 1377, by the will of Henry Frowyk, sen., a
chantry was established and endowed with rents
from tenements in the parishes of St. Lawrence
Jewry, St. Martin Ludgate, and in the Old
Change; (fn. 12) and John Northampton, (fn. 13) in 1397,
left lands in the Ropery in the parish of Allhallows the Great to provide for the maintenance of a chantry priest.
It is evident that the state of the priory in
1431 must have been considered satisfactory by
William Grey, bishop of London, for when he
dissolved the college of secular priests at Thele
(co. Herts., now Stanstead St. Margaret's) he
transferred its possessions to Elsingspital, (fn. 14)
charged with the maintenance of two regular
canons at Thele and three at the priory in
London to celebrate for the souls of the founders.
The priory was in this way enriched by messuages, land, and £12 rent in Bowers Gifford,
Chelmsford, Writtle, and Broomfield, co. Essex;
land, rights of pasturage, and 100s. rent in
Thele (now Stanstead St. Margaret's), Stanstead
Abbots, Amwell, Broxbourne, and Hoddesdon,
co. Herts.; and the advowsons of the churches
of Thele and Aldenham, co. Herts., which were
appropriated to the college. (fn. 15)
If the bishop by this measure had aimed not
only at reforming the college of Thele but also
at affording material aid to the finances of the
hospital, the result was disappointing. In
1438 the house was indebted to the extent of
£427 17s. 7¼d., (fn. 16) and ten years later it still
owed over £200. (fn. 17) The cause of these difficulties can only be guessed at, but it may have
been the building (fn. 18) or enlarging of the church,
which must have been of considerable size, as
after the Dissolution, when the principal aisle
had been pulled down, the remaining part sufficed
for a parish church. (fn. 19) An inventory in 1448 (fn. 20)
of the contents of the buttery, kitchen, great
and little chambers, library, (fn. 21) treasury, (fn. 22) and
church does not give an impression of poverty.
The church (fn. 23) possessed one or two important
relics, (fn. 24) and seems to have been well provided
with furniture and ornaments, (fn. 25) and especially
with vestments, of which it possessed six complete sets, white and red cloth of gold, green
velvet, and fustian, besides innumerable copes
and other vestments of all colours and materials,
including one of blue velvet powdered with
stars and crowns, the gift of John Hisbery.
It seemed impossible for the priory to free
itself from debt: in 1454 it owed £110 7s. 9½d., (fn. 26)
and although most of this was paid off by
Prior William Sayer, it was involved in 1461 to
the extent of £78 18s., partly owing to faulty
administration, which had allowed two canons
to incur liabilities for which the house was ultimately responsible. (fn. 27)
By this date two more chantries had been
established in the church: that of William
Stokes, endowed with the reversion of tenements in the parishes of St. Michael Bassishaw,
St. Sepulchre, and St. Botolph without Bishopsgate; (fn. 28) and that of William Flete, with an
income of £30 a year. (fn. 29) The gross income of
the house in 1461 amounted to £198 16s. 4d.
From this deductions had to be made for payments of quit-rents, £30 6s. 8d.; for repairs and
vacancies of tenements, £48; payments out of
the William Flete Chantry, £12 13s. 4d.;
anniversaries, £2; and payments to the poor
in the hospital, £22 13s. 4d.; a total of
£115 13s. 4d. The house appears in the end
to have overcome its difficulties, for there is no
hint of anything of this kind later.
The royal supremacy was subscribed to
22 June, 1534, by the prior, Roger Poten, and
ten canons; (fn. 30) it may therefore be presumed that
the priory had numbered at least as many in the
middle of the fifteenth century. The house was
dissolved under the Act of March, 1536, as
being of less yearly value than £200. (fn. 31) There
is no account of what happened to the blind and
sick poor in the hospital, but as the sisters (fn. 32) who
had had the care of them had a house in the
close (fn. 33) assigned to them, it is possible that they
were not turned adrift.
Roger Poten was made king's chaplain, and in
1536 he was given the rectories of the parish
churches of St. Mary Aldermanbury, London, (fn. 34)
and of St. Margaret's, Stanstead Thele, for
life. (fn. 35)
The gross income of the priory in 1535 was
£239 13s. 11½d., net income £193 15s. 6½d. (fn. 36)
The lands and tenements from which this was
derived lay for the most part in London parishes,
St. Mary Aldermanbury, (fn. 37) St. Alphage (Philip
Lane), (fn. 38) St. Lawrence Old Jewry, St. Mary le
Bow (Hosier Lane (fn. 39) and Bow Lane (fn. 40) ), St. Martin Ironmonger Lane, (fn. 41) St. Michael Bassishaw,
Allhallows the Great, (fn. 42) St. Vedast (Old Change), (fn. 43)
St. Sepulchre, (fn. 44) St. Giles without Cripplegate,
St. Michael Paternoster Royal, St. Botolph without Bishopsgate, (fn. 45) Allhallows Honey Lane, (fn. 46)
St. Dunstan and Allhallows Barking; (fn. 47) to these
must be added property in Hendon, co. Middlesex,
the manor of Bury or Bowers Gifford and rent
in Chelmsford, co. Essex, and rents in Thele,
Amwell, Hoddesdon, and Stanstead Abbots, co.
Herts. The priory held the churches already
mentioned of St. Mary Aldermanbury (fn. 48) and
Thele. (fn. 49)
Warden of the Hospital of St. Mary
John de Cataloigne, (fn. 50) 1331
Priors of the Hospital of St. Mary
William Elsyng? (fn. 51)
John de Wyndelesore, occurs 1353 (fn. 52)
Robert Draycote, occurs 1377, (fn. 53) 1387, (fn. 54)
1401, (fn. 55) and 1406 (fn. 56)
John Dally, resigned 1427 (fn. 57)
Henry Hoddesdon, elected 1427, (fn. 58) occurs
1431, (fn. 59) resigned 1438 (fn. 60)
John Bell, elected 1438 (fn. 61)
William Sayer, installed 1454, (fn. 62) occurs 1461 (fn. 63)
William Bowland, occurs 1496 (fn. 64)
John Wannel, resigned 1532 (fn. 65)
Roger Poten or Pottyn, elected 1532, (fn. 66)
occurs 1533; (fn. 67) was prior when the house
was suppressed (fn. 68)
The seal of the hospital used in the fourteenth
century (fn. 69) is in shape a pointed oval, and represents the Virgin standing in a carved and canopied
niche, with a smaller niche containing a geometrical window overhead; she wears a crown, and
holds on the left arm the Child, in the right
hand a flowering branch. The field is diapered
lozengy, with small quatrefoil in each space.
At each side there is a shield of arms: to the
left Our Lord on the Cross, Elsyng, founder;
right, England. In the base, under a carved
round-headed arch, the prior kneels in prayer to
the left, with the words of his prayer in two
lines on the pediment or string-course above the
arch: EXORA: NATE: ME: PIA: VIRGO:
BEATVM. Legend:—
. . . COMMVNE: HOSPITALIS: BEATE: MARIE:
INFRA: CREPELGATE: LONDON: